308 Notes and Enquiries on certaiji Plants 



reputed poisonous.", {Smith, in E. F., iv. 238.) In the Encyc. of Plants, it is 

 stated that H. rhamnoides is very prolific in berries ; which are yellow when 

 ripe, succulent, smooth, and gratefully acid to the taste. They are much eaten 

 by the Tartars; and the fishermen of the Gulf of Bothnia prepare a rob from 

 them which imparts a grateful flavour to fresh fish." 



The introducing an equal proportion of the plants of each sex, where those 

 of one only may have been introduced, or where it may be proposed to intro- 

 duce H. rhamnoides, will increase variety, botanical interest, ornament in 

 winter and early spring from the fruit of the female, additional to that from the 

 grouped flower-buds of the male, and, if the sexes be planted contiguous, fruit 

 for use, and perfect seeds for the production of plants. 



The following facts appertain to IL rhamnoides, without x'elation to its 

 sexes ; consequently, they are not in place here : but the inserting them here 

 may place them under cognisance for associating usefully with H. rhamnoides 



in its general relations : to the lovers of insects they will be interesting. 



H. rhamndldes grows in profusion all along the course of the Arve ; and Dei- 

 lephila (iSphinx) hippophaes is now so plentiful in consequence of the num- 

 bers of it collected and bred by the peasants, that a specimen costs but 

 3 francs : specimens were formerly sold at 60 francs each ; and one of the first 

 discovered specimens was sold for 200 francs. ( W. Spence, the distinguished 

 Entomologist, in a Commumication in Mag. Nat. Hist., iv. 148., dated Geneva, 

 Aug. 27. 18.30.) 



Of two plants of H. rhamnoides, male, in the arboretum of the London 

 Horticultural Society, one has, Mr. Gordon noticed to me in April, 1835, its 

 flower-buds smaller, and these earlier in blossom, than those of the other. 



H. rhamnoides angustifolia. This name is published in Messrs. Loddiges's 

 Catalogue, ed. 1830. A plant labeled with this name was, on April 28. 1835, 

 bearing fruit in their arboretum ; though a much smaller quantity of it than 

 H. rhamnoides, female, to which it stood near. Its bearing fruit proves it to 

 be of the female sex. Its leaves are notably narrow. Its fruit is spoken of 

 in the preceding page. 



H. sibirica. This name is in Messrs. Loddiges's Catalogue, ed. 1830; and 

 a plant of it was growing in their arboretum in April 28. 1835. The plant was 

 dwarf and feeble, and not flowering. 



" H. conferta, Nipal." A plant thus named, in the arboretum of the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society, is not flowering in April, 1835 : hence the sex of 

 this plant cannot be here noted. Dr. Wallich is the author of the name, in 

 1824, in his herbarium, since presented, by the East India Company, to the 

 Linnaean Society. In this herbarium are two sets of specimens : one set of 

 plants ranging from Himalaya to Gossan Than ; the other, plants inhabiting 

 the interval of Hmialaya and Kamoon. These last have the name Robert 

 Blinkworth appended to this locality. Both sets are labeled H. fasciculata, 

 and dated 1821. This name Dr. Wallich superseded, in 1824, by that of 

 conferta : fasciculata and conferta have, it is probable, each been intended to 

 signify the little groups into which the male flowers are disposed. In each set 

 of specimens, there are the two sexes. Mr. D. Don thinks it likely that H. 

 conferta Wall., and H. salicifolia D. Do7i (in his Prodromus Florce Nepalensis), 

 may be identical. — — The fruit " of ^Iseagnus arborea and conferta is eaten 

 in Nipal." (Li?idlej/^s Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot., p. 68.) Is it possible that 

 H. conferta is intended by the latter of these ? 



H. salicifolia D, Don, in his Prodromus Florce Nepalensis. If H. conferta 

 and H. salicifolia pi-ove identical, H. salicifolia isj I suppose, the name priorly 

 published, and, consequently, the one to be adopted, in accordance with the 

 laws of botanists. In the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges is a shrub labeled 

 H. .^alicifolia : not in flower on April 28. 1835. Loudon's Hortus Britannicus 

 and Sweet's Hortus Britannicus show that H. salicifdlia had not flowered in 

 Britain, to the knowledge of the authors of these works, at the time each, 

 registered these species. Mr. Sweet has dated the introduction of H. saWci- 

 folia into Britain in 1818; Mr. G.Don, in Loudon's Hortus Britannicus, m 



